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Woman stopped with £30,000 of drug in car denies conspiracy to deal

A woman was stopped in a car carrying £30,000 of the party drug Miaow Miaow, a court was told.

Angela Clark

Angela Clark, 52, of Robert Owen Avenue, Cleator Moor, was in a hire car stopped by police on the Appleby bypass on April 25 last year.

Police had tracked the car throughout the day from west Cumbria down to Leicester on what they say was a drugs run.

Clark was driving the vehicle and a man called Grant Robertson was her passenger.

Clark has denied conspiring with others to supply methcathinone – or Miaow Miaow – between March 1 and May 22 last year, possessing a quantity of amphetamine on April 25 last year and possessing 212 counterfeit £1 coins.

Opening the trial, prosecutor Jeremy Grout-Smith said: “In spring last year, police launched a large investigation into a suspected criminal gang importing drugs into the county for onward resale.

“The prosecution say Angela Clark was part of that conspiracy. She was only one branch of a large tree but nevertheless she was still a branch.

“The defendant denies any knowing involvement in these matters.

“When police stopped the car they found two bags behind the driver’s seat containing 1.5 kilos of methcathinone with a value of about £30,000 or £20 per gram.”

Also in the car was a bag of counterfeit £1 coins at Mr Robertson’s feet and other counterfeit coins in Clark’s purse, say police.

When police searched Clark’s home they also found a set of electronic kitchen scales where traces of methcathinone were found and 9g of amphetamine was also found in the house.

When interviewed by police, Clark initially said that she had picked up a man and a woman on the street but later changed her story when surveillance showed she had done nothing of the kind.

Mr Grout-Smith told the jury: “She told police she had been to Birmingham on April 25 to meet a boyfriend. She said she met him for one and a half hours and as far as she knew Mr Robertson stayed in the car.

“She said there had been no opportunity for the drugs to get into her car.

“The defendant was lying to the police in her interview and plainly knew what she was doing.”

PC John Parkinson, who gave evidence to the jury, said when he stopped the car Clark told him they had been to Birmingham to visit one of Mr Robertson’s friends who had cancer.

“I asked her why, if they had been to Birmingham, were they travelling up the M1 and across the A66 to get back to west Cumbria? She said the satnav had sent them that way. I didn’t believe her,” he said.

Analysis of the satnav showed that it had been programmed to go to Leicester, not Birmingham.